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Hornet Attack Save
Location: Swain County, North Carolina Date: July 3, 1994 Story 62-year-old Norman Schlosser had been spending July 4th, 1994 weekend at a cabin in the Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina, with four of his six children and their families. On the last night of their stay, they never expected anything to go wrong. Norman's son, Steve, was sitting on the front porch, playing his banjo with his son, James, who is blind. James heard a hornet buzzing around and said he was scared. Steve told him to be still, but when he opened the front door, the hornet immediately flew inside. Norman's daughter, Rita, told everyone to stay calm as they tried to drive it out with a broom. Norman was reading next to a lamp, the light of which attracted the hornet. It landed on the back of his neck and stung him there. Upon hearing his screams, his other daughter, Cathy, rushed in to see what was going on, saying his screams sounded like he was being violently attacked. He had been stung before by different types of bees and wasps, but never experienced any kind of allergic reaction. As Norman was taken to the bathroom, Steve killed the hornet by squishing it inside Norman's shirt and took it outside. There was no first aid kit in the cabin, so they applied the old southern remedy of putting wet tobacco on the sting to try to calm the pain. Steve figured Norman's pain wouldn't last long, and that he would be fine within the next half hour or so. But he said he was feeling nauseous and then collapsed on the floor. Cathy then knew the situation was serious. There was no phone in the cabin, so she immediately ran to the front desk at the lodge to call for help. Meanwhile, Norman was gasping for air, could not breathe, and was soon suffocating. Cathy could not stand the thought of losing Norman as she ran to the lodge. As Steve, Rita, and other relatives attempted to help him, his body became very rigid and he began suffocating. Steve had never been trained in CPR, but he forced Norman's mouth open and began blowing into his lungs as well as he could. When Cathy reached the lodge, the desk clerk called 911, and notified the cook, Rhonda Bachman, who happened to be an EMT, about the situation. Rhonda only heard that someone had fainted, but thought she would monitor the situation until the ambulance arrived. Norman's condition was deteriorating quickly, and his face turned about three different shades of gray. Steve began crying, thinking he was dying. At one point, Cathy could tell he had stopped breathing, and had never seen Steve fighting so hard before. When Rhonda arrived at the cabin, she found the whole family panicking, and couldn't understand why until she went inside and saw Norman lying on the floor. It had been more than ten minutes since he had been stung, and to her, he looked dead. Even though she was not a familiar face to Steve, he knew she was there to help and he thought she was an angel. She saw that Norman's chest did not rise as Steve breathed into his lungs, so she felt his neck for a pulse and felt nothing. She began giving him CPR. Steve had nearly lost his breath from all of the breathing. After one of Rhonda's compressions, Norman began gasping for air. Fifteen minutes after he collapsed, a Swain County medic unit arrived, including EMT Louis Crisp. They applied an epipen to Norman due to the allergic reaction to the sting, and he responded within seconds. The situation, however, was still life-threatening, as he was far from being out of danger. When Cathy saw him being loaded into the ambulance, it was a terrible feeling for her, not knowing if he would make it. Norman was taken to Swain County Hospital, and put under the care of emergency physician Marcus Williams. His blood pressure was 80/0, and he received adrenaline at the scene. But Dr. Williams was scared that he may go into reaction again if he wasn't given antihistamines and steroids. Cathy sat in the waiting room having no idea what kind of condition he was in, hoping he would recover and be able to leave the hospital soon. A month and a half later, Norman fully recovered from the incident that had nearly taken his life. "Unless you go through a near-death experience like this, it's hard to express how much you think of those people, and what they've done for you," he said. "Without the help of my family, Rhonda, and the EMTs, I would not be here today." The fact that Rhonda was able to keep him going until the ambulance arrived was a major accomplishment for her, and Steve let her know from his heart just how important she was to him and his family after saving Norman's life. Norman now carries a prescription bee kit with him whenever he's outdoors, just in case he gets stung again, and can't be without it. When Steve thought about what had happened that night, it made him very emotional, as he recalled thinking Norman was already dead, feeling bad that he hadn't told him so many things he wanted to tell him, and so grateful for the second chance with him. Category:1994 Category:North Carolina Category:Insect Attacks Category:Anaphylactic Shock